Click Track - Patti Smith and Keith Richards: a study in contrast

Click Track - Patti Smith and Keith Richards: a study in contrast

STRIDE Magazine now

In Stride Magazine now at http://www.stridemagazine.co.uk/:

Current Articles

THE EDITOR'S PICKS
A personal best of 2010

LOOKING BACK FOR A LONG TIME
Christian Hawkey's Ventrakl

THE ARM STRIKES BACK
Dom Jaeckle's Faithless Arm & Co.

ROTH AS POET
Ira Lightman on Nemesis

HARD-WIRED
David Hart on Jean Follain and Ludwig Steinherr
'I, THE ATROCITY'
Pascal Petit's Kahlo

MR SYNTAX DOES NOT ALWAYS SELL OUT
but he can dream, says Robert Ensor

THE DODO EXISTS IN MY HOUSE
says Jonathan Reid

WELL-PRUNED
Jane Routh on new books from
Mark Goodwin and Daniel Johnson

THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
Paul Sutton on Jesse Glass

OK BUT
Forty Lies reviewed

UNDERCURRENT
Requiem for a Dream // 102

A SPLENDID JOB
Roddy Lumsden's Identity Parade

SKIN NEVER FORGETS
Ian Seed braves it on the bus

LEARNING THE LANGUAGE
Recent art books reviewed

DEFLATED EGO 9
Jane Routh on Jane Routh

from THE BOOK OF ISAAC
five sonnets by Aidan Semmens

PACK A POET IN YOR SUITCASE
Angela Topping reviews
three new poetry collections

OH WELCOME COMPLEXITY
Paul Sutton on Blandine Longre

SHUT YOUR MOUTH
AND SAVE YOUR LIFE
says Bobby Parker

JUST DO IT
John Ashbery collected

THE NECESSITY OF FAILURE
David Pollard on Mario Petrucci

VIPERS!
James McLaughlin opens
A Music Box of Snakes

BROKEN SIGNALS
Cindytalk interviewed

CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS
Martin Stannard has forgotten
how to play the violin

EARTHBOUND, BUT LOOKING UP
M.C. Caseley reviews Seamus Heaney

DEFLATED EGO 8
Philip Terry on Philip Terry

HEARING VOICES
David Hart reviews new translations

TRANSPORTED, OVERWHELMED
& PARADIDDLED
new poetry reviewed

QUIET SUBVERSIONS
Robert Sheppard's The Given

THE PARALYTIC CHILD
by Paul Stubbs

ARGUING WITH THE SCIENCE LOBBY
David Kennedy reviews Dove Release

HE KNOWS HOW TO ELBOW HIS WAY
INTO ETERNITY'S REFRIGERATOR
does John Greiner

A TRIP FROM HERE TO THERE
Brion Gysin: Dream Machine

THUNDER & CONVERSATIONS DISAPPEAR
in David Lawrence's poems

JAMES McLAUGHLIN'S TREE
always nearly

FAB FABBRO
David Kennedy reviews Adrian Clarke

DEFLATED EGO 7
David Briggs on David Briggs

ANNOTATED NOTES FROM ABROAD
David Toop's Sinister Resonance

SPARSE SOUL
Damian Furniss and Jim Goar

SPLIT LOYALTIES
Rob Young's Electric Eden and
Brandon Labelle's Acoustic Territories

POEMS FOR GRAVE DIGGERS
Tim Peeler is betting on the monkey man

ARLENE ANG, JUDY KENDALL
& LINDA FRANCE
reviewed by Howard Giskin

CRAWL TO THE MAILBOX
John Cash, Dylan & Rimbaud
in new poems by R.L. Greenfield

A KIND OF CONFUSION,
A KIND OF REVIEW
David Grubb's The Fire Child

HURRAH, ARSE-HORNS,
LONG LIVE PERE UBU!
David Kennedy on Alfred Jarry

BURSTING THE BOX
Reginald Dwayne Betts' new book

MIXED REACTIONS
Paul Sutton on David Kennedy

DICTIONARY OF DRIFT
Exploring Restless Cities

WRITING THE LOVED WORLD
new books by Chase Twitchell,
Darragh Breen and Doris Jareva
PAUL SUTTON IS THE REAL THING
says Martin Stannard

GOOD STUFF
Jack Underwood's Faber New Poets 4

FISHING FOR BEGINNERS
new books by James Bell,
Rhys Trimble and Damian Furniss

STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL
new books by Peter Finch,
Michael Haslam and Scott Thurston

SOME UNCUT PAGES
An Unofficial Roy Fisher

THE 'CONSCIENCE-RIDDEN' TRADITION
OF BRITISH SOCIALISM
Prakash Kona on Alan Morrison

TREES HAVE SUFFERED FOR THIS
new Acumen and Faber pamphlets

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD MIND
A.C. Evans on an alien art work

THE POWER OF HAVING FUN
an interview with Steve Spence

START A FIRE AT THE EDGE OF DARKNESS
new poems by Ian Seed

POWER PLAYS IN THE LIFE WORLD
Cyberliberties and Controlled Vocabularies

SO MANY UNSAIDS
an interview with Paul Sutton

AMERICAN IMMORTALS
David Kennedy on Burroughs & Cage

FARM BOY
Todd Boss' Yellowrocket

MAGIC IS PESSIMISIM
TAKEN TO ITS LOGICAL CONCLUSION
New poems from Nathan Thompson

EROTIC POEMS
Ira Lightman on e.e. cummings

CAUSES FOR CELEBRATION
Four Zimbabwean Poets & Grace Nichols

BARKING AT THE SHAPE OF AIR
Ian Seed and prose-poem possibilities

THE METAPHORICAL PIRATE
Nathan Thompson on Steve Spence

CONVERSATIONAL TONES
Louise Gluck's Village Life

CATCHING THE CROSSLIGHT
Peter Gillies on Edward Hopper

ON CLASSIFICATION
On Alasdair Paterson

UNCAGED SEA
Scott Thurston on John Goodby

MADNESS IN HIS METHOD
David Briggs' new collection

UNORIGINALITY & SIMON ARMITAGE
Paul Sutton is Seeing Stars

GRIM MEMBRANES
Robert Fontella is With Deer

LOOPY LUPIN & TALITY TALES
from Duncan Gillies MacLaurin

CH-CH-CHANGES?
Lorca, Neruda & Tsvetayeva

APATHY FULL STOP
Nick Kent, Barry Miles and Identity Parade
fail to interest. Bob Hicok does

DOES YOUR ENGLISH LET YOU DOWN?
let Steve Spence help

OUTSIDE THE PORTHOLE INVISIBLE GLISTENS
Jane Holland's Adventure Sky

LARGE PATCHES OF SILENCE
new poems by John McKernan

HERE IS YOUR WORDLIST FOR THE WEEK
good luck from Nicholas Liu

RABBITS ON THE WHOLE
ARE RELUCTANT TO READ POETRY
writes Joanne Merriam

INFINITE DIFFERENCES
two new anthologies of women's writing

THE BAT GOD
David Chorlton is waiting for the sphinx moth

METAPHYSICAL BANANA PEELS
Robert Fontella on Boris Yankelevich

TROUBLES SWAPPED FOR SOMETHING FRESH
a review and unreview by Phil Brown

APPARENTLY...
Helen Ivory and Matthew Caley

THE ADVENTURE OF TAKING SILLY CHANCES
new poems by David Lawrence

TO THE LIGHTHOUSE
Ben Wilkinson on new pamphlets

DETAILED APPREHENSION
Meredith Miller takes a blue pencil
to Brandi Homan

THEIR SHINE ALMOST CIRCLES
new poems by Simon Perchik

HISTORY AS KNOWLEDGE
George Szirtes' Hungary

FINE WINE!
drunk on Elizabeth Bletsoe

REMEMBERING & INTERPRETING
Frances Presley's Lines of Sight

CONFUSION IS NOT A CRIME
Catherine Walsh's Optic Verve

PHOTOGRAPHS & FRISBEES
Jane Routh makes Inroads

INTOXICATED
Steve Spence on Elisabeth Bletsoe

THE TOIL OF EROSION
Peter Larkin gets to the root of it

NOTHING LIKE LOVE
James McLaughlin 4 Jenny Joseph

THERE'S SOMETHING IN THERE?
John Mingay reviews five new titles

I STAY INDOORS AND LEARN WORDS
new poems by Martin Stannard

A YOUNG WOMAN'S WORLD
smouldering relationships & pubic shaving

CULTURAL GROUPINGS
New Turkish and Moroccan poetry

GOING BIG
Joanne Fulman's Pageant

CURSE YOUR BRANCHES
David Bazan's new way of thinking

THE ROOM MUST BE FILLED
Philip Roth, Jeremy Reed & Myung Mi Kim

ANTICIPATION CROWDS THE CACTUS CAKE
Jake O'Leary's Language of Excess

ARCANA AND OTHER POEMS
James McLaughlin is transported

ON AND ON AND ON
Molly Peacock's The Second Blush

ACROSS THE PURPLE HEATHER
Peter Gillies on Thomas A Clark

YOU AS ONLY I KNOW
a poem sequence by John Mingay

MAKING WAVES
Nathan Thompson is in Poemland

A BIG BIT OF BREAD
& PLENTY OF CHEESE
Philip Terry on Jeremy Over

THREE SEA-WINDS
AND ONE TATTERED COAT
new titles reviewed by John Mingay

MORE THAN FOURTEEN LINES
Camille Martin's Sonnets

GOD OF HIS OWN IMAGINATION
David Briggs' Fool

VISTAS AND TWISTED EXPLANATIONS
James MacLaughlin's Odes

DAVID NASH IS NOT YOUR FRIEND
But he might be your cousin

HOMONYMS MADE PALPABLE AGAIN
Sheila E Murphy's Vespers
WHERE IT'S AT
Recent art and music books

WHERE DEEPS OF FEELING ARE
John McKeown's Sea of Leaves

EARS FINDING THE SHIFT
New freedoms, new translations

SCATTERING DUST IS GOOD PRACTICE
Camille Martin's double sonnets

THE EDITOR'S PICKS 2009

UNNATURAL EVOLUTION
Tony Lopez's Darwin

A CONTINENT APPEARS
Mary Michaels' Tide
A CENTURY OF POETRY REVIEW
Jane Holland catches her breath

SHE DREAMED; HIS WORLD SHIFTED
Carolyn Hart's Aurora
ANDY WARHOL IS NOT YOUR FRIEND
But he might be your cousin

SEARCHING FOR TROLLS
The Dark Monarch and The Psychick Bible

PENGUINS IN PERIWIGS
and other new poems by K.J. Hannah Greenberg

ONE WORLD OR ANOTHER
Peter Dent's interlocking planes

DECEIVING WILD CREATURES
Steve Spence on Jeremy Over

ARE WE NOT DRAWN...
On the beach with Peter Philpott

IT IS THE SAME VOICE IN THE MOUTH
Ian Seed repeats the procedure

THE DOOR OF TALDIR
Bill Sherman on Paul Evans

MISTS & FLAMES
Abi Curtis' Unexpected Weather

THE SWEEP AND TUG OF LANGUAGE
Alan Halsey's Term as in Aftermath

A Visit from St. Nicholas

Attributed to Clement Clark Moore (1822)
More probably written by Major Henry Livingston, Jr. (1808)


’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle,
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”

from An American Anthology, 1787–1900 (1900, ed. Edmund Clarence Stedman), available online at Bartleby.com.

VLAK 1: Free Download

The inaugural issue of VLAK Magazine: Contemporary Poetics & the Arts (out of print!) is now available for free download at http://www.issuu.com/litteraria

Inside VLAK 1 (September 2010):

Marjorie Perloff on Ian Hamilton Finlay

Keith Jones on Punk in Africa

Matt Hall on J.H. Prynne

Robert Sheppard on Radio Interference Poetics

Louis Armand on Veronique Vassiliou

Stephan Delbos on Charles Olson’s Gloucester

Darren Tofts on Ian Haig

Henry Hills interviewed

Stephanie Barber & Jen Hofer in dialogue...

New writing by Abigail Child, Rachel Blau Du Plessis, Holly Tavel, Joshua Cohen, Eileen Myles, John Wilkinson, Stephanie Strickland, Allen Fisher, Marjorie Welish, Catherine Hales, Mez, Karen Mac Cormack, Ali Alizadeh, Ron Padget, Brandon Downing, Pam Brown, Thor Garcia, John Coletti, Jessica Fiorini, Bruce Andrews, Vincent Farnsworth, Mark Terrill, Elizabeth Gross, Douglas Piccinnini, Arlo Quint, Vincent Katz, Veronique Vassiliou, Pierre Joris, Habib Tengour, Aaron Lowinger, John Kinsella, Stacey Szymaszek, Mike Farrell, Andrea Brady, Edwin Torres, Alli Warren, Jess Mynes, Lina Ramona Vitkauskas, Ales Steger, Betsy Fagin, Jena Osman, Octavio Armand, John Godfrey, Allyssa Wolf…

Visual work by Veronika Drahotova, Alexander Jorgensen, Vadim Erent, Holli Schorno, Steve McCaffery, Amande In, Richard Tipping, Tim Haze, Bill Mousoulis...

http://issuu.com/litteraria/docs/vlak1_september_2010/1

VLAK 2 is in print -

http://www.vlakmagazine.com

VLAK Magazine is published by Litteraria Pragensia Books

Copies of VLAK are now available from the Litteraria Pragensia website http://www.litterariapragensia.com (under "Journals") and from selected bookstores: St Marks Books, Nicky's Smoke & Magazine W 11th & 6th (New York); DOX, The Globe, Shakespeare & Sons (Prague).

Peter Cowan Writers Centre Poetry Programme

There are just nine more days before entries close for the inaugural advanced poetry workshops. Applicants must submit between three and five of their recent poems to Peter Cowan Writers’ Centre with a copy to Professor Andrew Taylor and 12 poets will be invited to attend 10 sessions on the second Saturday of each month from February to November. This is the provisional programme.

PETER COWAN WRITERS’ CENTRE
ADVANCED POETRY WORKSHOPS 2011

Submissions should be emailed to a.taylor@ecu.edu.au and also to cowan05@bigpond.com


PROVISIONAL PROGRAM

February 12: Andrew Taylor: Hearing it aloud: Rhythm, Voice and Breath

Poetry is a physical activity, it involves your breathing and indeed your whole body. Acquire a large dog and take it for long walks, and feel your line walking too, exploring, hunting things out. Listen to its rhythm, which is never arbitrary, and its tone, which is crucial. If you can´t read your own poetry aloud, if it sounds awkward, there´s something wrong with it. Think of poetry as a kind of breathing and being.

March 12: Shane McCauley: Imagery

This workshop will explore and practice the types and dimensions of metaphor, including T.S. Eliot's concept of the objective co-relative. Literal, figurative and allusive imagery will be considered, as well as the comparative merits of simile and metaphor.

April 9: Marcella Polain: Tradition and individual talent

Poetry is a conversation between the poet-in-the-now and poets who have gone before. These voices, many belonging to poetic canons, echo for and in us as we write, even if we prefer they wouldn't. You are invited to consciously enter a poetic conversation by bringing your favourite poem or two (any form) by another published poet and an openness to writing your response.

May 14: Andrew Lansdown: Alternative poetic forms (eg Haiku etc)

TS Eliot claimed that one poet is superior to another primarily on the basis of his or her critical faculties. Writing in traditional poetic forms supports and strengthens our critical faculties by providing objective guidance and goals. It also enhances our creativity by prompting us to think in ways that are new to us. This workshop will focus primarily on the traditional Japanese poetic forms of haiku, gunsaku, tanka and choka, all of which are conducive to contemporary descriptive, reflective and imagist poetry.

June 11: Glen Philips: Poetry and Place

July 9: Andrew Burke: Revision, rethinking, rewriting

Our conscious and our unconscious mind(s) are competing for top billing in the first draft of our poem. This workshop teaches participants how to polish the Vision, untangle the Thought, and fine-tune the Statement. But, as Charles Olson so rightly advises, we leave a little dirt on the roots 'just to make clear / where they come from...'

August 13: Kevin Gillam: Inspiration. OR matching form and mood

Inspiration: how do we keep ourselves creatively alive and alert as poets?
Are there techniques and practices that we could take on to ensure the imagination
and vitality in our writing remains? This workshop focuses upon the ways and means of sustaining the ‘wild mind’. Starting ideas, rules and strictures, syllable mapping, imagery games....and many more. A workshop to assist in keeping the spark, keeping it sharp.

September 10: Dennis Haskell: Metre and Rhythm

October 8: Lucy Dougan:

Sustaining Your Creative Practice: This workshop focuses on encouraging participants to become aware of the idiosyncratic 'maps' of fragments and quotations from cultural practices that can sustain and inform their work. Be prepared to come along with a fragment from your favourite poem, novel, film, song lyric, or painting to use as the basis for new work.

November 12: Andrew Taylor and Glen Phillips What have you gained?

AND Being professional

Poetry is a never-ending process. What have you learned during these seminars, and has it prepared you to learn further? And a few words about getting published, getting a book together, and other ways of making your work known. Is online publishing all you should look at, even if it´s worldwide? Nobody in the poetry world is too well known, so think big. Be ambitious but also critical!

Kind Regards


John McMullan
President
Peter Cowan Writers Centre
Office hours Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am-3pm
Phone/Fax: 9301 2282
E-mail: cowan05@bigpond.com
Website: http://www.pcwc.org.au

Poetry Daily Prose Feature: Interview with Rae Armantrout

I have expressed my admiration for Rae Armantrout's poetry before, and posted some connections and quotes from interviews. Here is another interview, this one with some clear remarks about her process - which is helpful to read and understand her poetry.

I start with a healthy quote:

Can you talk about the importance of voice in your poems?

There are so many voices in the air. Sometimes they become the voices in my head—voices from the media, or a tone of voice from my mother. All of those voices go into who we are, and are distinguishable from us too. My beginning point is to separate myself from them, or throw them off by putting brackets around them. There wasn't much conscious use of other voices in my first book, Extremities. However, the first poem in my second book, The Invention of Hunger, was taken partly from a Scientific American article about termites and partly from some material about S&M bondage. And certainly my use of outside voices continues: for instance, here is my poem "Integer," from Versed:

1

One what?
One grasp?
No hands.
No collection
of stars. Something dark
pervades it.

2

Metaphor
is ritual sacrifice.

It kills the look-alike.

No,
metaphor is homeopathy.

A healthy cell
exhibits contact inhibition.

3

These temporary credits
will no longer be reflected
in your next billing period.

4

"Dark" meaning
not reflecting,
not amenable
to suggestion.

The third section came directly from my phone bill. While I was working on the poem, my husband Chuck read that aloud to me and said, "What does this mean?" and I thought, That goes in. We didn't know what temporary credits were, but it sounded sort of ominous—temporary credit now being revoked.

It's interesting to note how that found section is embedded in the poem, and how the poem responds to it, as it is echoing and questioning its terms.

The Fourth section responds to the word "reflected" in the third section, but it also responds to the word" dark" in the first section. That pulls the three sections together, at least in my mind, and then goes to "not amenable to suggestion"—as if reflection is a kind of suggestion. It also connects back to the second part and portrays metaphor as a kind of reflection.

Can you talk more about the use of question-and-response as a rhetorical device in your poems?

A good example of that might be the last two sections of "A Resemblance," in Versed:

Look alikes.

"Are you happy now?"

*

Would I like
a vicarious happiness?

Yes!

Though I suspect
yours of being defective,

forced

I ask two questions, then give an answer. "Look alikes" actually responds to some of the comparisons I've made before—it refers to the similes poetry is supposed to deal in. And then, "Are you happy now?"—okay, so I've made some similes, are you happy now? That's the kind of voice you hear in a relationship ....

Or one you might hear on television—it's a stock phrase.

Right—it's also something that might occur in dialogue. When I use such phrases, I call it "faux collage"—sometimes they are "real" found language, and sometimes they only seem to be real. Putting "Are you happy now?" in quotes makes it look like the former, but it isn't, really ... I didn't see it somewhere or hear it on television. Sometimes I do pick out phrases I see or hear on television, but sometimes I just make them up because they're already in my head.

By contrast, the next question, "Would. I like / a vicarious happiness," seems wholly original.

And I answer it with "yes" and an exclamation point. What follows undercuts that "yes" a bit—it's as if I'm saying I'd like to share your happiness in a vicarious way, although I'm also suspicious that you're faking your happiness. Which I'll never know.

----------
Much more to read and enjoy at http://poems.com/special_features/prose/essay_armantrout.php

Some poems at http://www.jubilat.org/n11/armantrout.html

"Whoso List To Hunt" Sonnet by Sir Thomas Wyatt

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, hélas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about:
Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.

Merry Christmas from Phil Hall, Canadian poet

Thanks, Phil - great image.

YouTube - Captain Beefheart & Magic Band - Sure 'nuff 'n Yes I do

YouTube - Captain Beefheart & Magic Band - Sure 'nuff 'n Yes I do: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Sad, the Captain is dead. Long live the Captain.

Art by Captain Beefheart (via Ron Silliman via Roling Stone archives)

Friday 17th December, 7.30pm: Dr Andrew Burke launches Amanda Joy's book of poetry 'In Hand', with readings by Jeremy Balius and Coral Carter.

Plus music by the Kissin' Cousins - and Amanda peforming to the gentle strings of a guitar.

Then, dance the night away to celebrate the last event of 2010 for the Gallery!

Fringe Gallery: 94 Bawdan Street Willagee -
Replies: terry.farrell@optusnet.com.au

M E D I A R E L E A S E Announcing Australian Poetry

PO Box 21082 | Little Lonsdale Street 8011 | VICTORIA | +61 3 9094 7826 | admin@australianpoetrycentre.org.au |
http://www.australianpoetrycentre.org.au | ACN 146 117 679

Australian Poetry is the merger of the Poets Union (based in NSW) and the Australian Poetry Centre (based in VIC). Commencing formally in 2011, it is has been recently granted Key Emerging Organisation status by the Australia Council. Australian Poetry was created for the purpose of better serving the needs of the Australian poetry community while developing an increased interest in, and providing all poets and the wider community with greater access to, Australian poetry and poets. You can read more about the organisation here.

MEET THE PEOPLE
Paul Kooperman (National Director), Victoria Amy (National Publications Manager), Katie Walsh (National Program Manager), Emilie Zoey Baker (National Education Officer), Andy Jackson (National Library Manager), Robert Lukins (Administration Officer), Leah Greengarten (NSW State Director), Katrina Bercov (WA State Director)

POETS IN RESIDENCE
Thanks to the generosity of the Pratt Foundation, Sandra Thibodeaux, previous Director of the NT Writers Centre, has been awarded the Australian Poetry Poet in Residence to work as a poet for the bulk of 2011 on her own poetry as well as being an ambassador for poetry around the country. Sandra will be based in Darwin with the NT Writers Centre.
Thanks to an Australia Council ArtsStart Grant, Eliza Hull, has been awarded the role of Writer in Residence with Australian Poetry working on her writing, song writing, blogging and other interests to develop a career as a writer. Eliza will be based in Melbourne at the Wheeler Centre.
For more information about Australian Poetry call (03) 9094 7827 or email admin@australianpoetrycentre.org.au for more information

A life in writing: Les Murray | Books | The Guardian

A life in writing: Les Murray | Books | The Guardian

I like this interview. Have a read.

Rilke's, 'the patron saint of poetry', The Inner Sky

In my usual rummaging around the Net, I found a list of the 10 Best Poetry Lists from The Prague Post Blogs at http://blogs.praguepost.com/blog/2010/12/05/top-10-poetry-collections-of-2010/

The Inner Sky, By Rainer Maria Rilke, Translated by Damion Searles, David R. Godine Publishers

"For appreciative readers of his work, Rainer Maria Rilke is the patron saint of poetry, a touchstone to revisit at particularly difficult or introspective moments in life. Therefore, The Inner Sky, a collection of poems, journal entries, fragments and other marginalia translated for the first time into English by Damion Searls, is a fascinating book and a welcome addition to the Anglophone Rilke oeuvre, though it lacks the polished power of Rilke’s more crafted publications. In an age that profitably repackages its famous dead, including Rilke, with books ranging from Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties to Rilke on Death and Other Oddities, one must ask if this latest contribution isn’t simply another log on the lucrative green flame of the posthumous pyre. But The Inner Sky ultimately achieves more than that. Damion Searls has contributed thrilling new translations of this most familiar poet that show Rilke’s thought in its rawest form."

Other books praised:

A History of Clouds, By Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Seagull Books

Human Chain, By Seamus Heaney, Faber and Faber

The Return of Kral Majales, Edited by Louis Armand, Litteraria Pragensia

Come On All You Ghosts, By Matthew Zapruder, Copper Canyon Press

Hazard or Fall, By Catherine Hales, Shearsman

May, By Karel Hynek Macha, Translated by Marcela Sulak, Twisted Spoon Press

The Book of Disquiet, By Fernando Pessoa, Serpent’s Tail Classics

White Egrets, By Derek Walcott, Faber and Faber

Look Back, Look Ahead: Selected Poems, By Srecko Kosovel, Translated by Barbara Carlson and Ana Jelnikar, Ugly Duckling Presse

Merwin and Duffy—Two Very Different Laureates

Merwin and Duffy—Two Very Different Laureates

Worth a read.

Poet GEOFF PAGE at Tom Collins House Saturday 12th February 10:30 to 12:30

Using Traditional Forms in Contemporary Poetry

This will be a quick look at the role still being played by traditional metres and forms in contemporary Australian poetry. It will present an opportunity for each participant to have one of their own poems in traditional form considered in detail in a workshop situation. Forms such as the sonnet, villanelle, sestina, pantoum, tanka and haiku will be discussed as well as the use of iambic metre and various stanzaic forms (such as the ballad) as occasional alternatives to the prevailing free verse orthodoxy.

Participants should submit one poem (written in some sort of traditional form) for consideration a fortnight before the workshop.

Geoff Page, b.1940,is an Australian poet who has published 18 collections of poetry as well as two novels, four verse novels & other works including anthologies, translations and a biography of the jazz musician, Bernie McGann. He retired at the end of 2001 from being head of the English Department at Narrabundah College in the ACT. Geoff has won many awards, including the ACT Poetry

Awards: the Grace Leven Prize, the Christopher Brennan Award, the Queensland Premier’s Prize for Poetry & the 2001 Patrick White Literary Award. Geoff’s poems have been translated into Chinese, Hindi, German, Serbian, Slovenian and Greek. He has also read his work & talked about Australian poetry around the world.

Book NOW to ensure your place at this workshop with leading Australian poet Geoff Page. (Ph. 9384 4771; email: admin@fawwa.org.au

FAWWA Members: $30
Non-members: $45

Celebrate 10 years of poetry publishing in Western Australia! This SUNDAY

For the first time, on Sunday 12th December from 10am-12 noon there will be a unique gathering of Sunline Press Poets reading together.
Since 2000, Sunline Press has been publishing celebrated and award-winning Australian poets in beautifully designed volumes.
Join us for this unique event to celebrate a decade of great writing at the serene Bodhi Tree Café – where food for the body meets food for the soul.


Confirmed readers so far are Kevin Gillam, Roland Leach, Shane McCauley, Vivienne Glance, Jennifer Kornberger and Andrew Burke.

Copies of Sunline Press publications will be available for sale.


Location: 1a/416-418 Oxford Street, Mt Hawthorn WA 6016


Tel: (08) 9444 9884
For more information about The Bodhi Tree please see http://www.bodhitree.net.au/

Michael Farrell's latest poetry chapbook 'thempark' is out now

Writing through, under and over John Ashbery, Michael Farrell has created a startling landscape in which traces of an earlier, resilient nature push their way through cracks in new commercial signage. The attention here to sudden shifts of idiolect and register keeps the energy pulsating through an arcade of verbal distractions – Oprah to your left, Gitmo down that aisle, and over there, marzipan. “It’s an ipod world.” As his title implies, Farrell is caught between a themepark designed by Ashbery and a “thempark” where the others live. – Michael Davidson

Price, just $10 from http://www.bookthug.ca/proddetail.php?prod=201031&cat=5

Creatrix Issue 11, December 2010 is now online.

Poetry can be read at: http://www.wapoets.net.au/pages/creatrixissue11poetry.html.
Haiku/Senryu can be read at: http://www.wapoets.net.au/pages/creatrixissue11haiku.html.

SPD Poetry Best-sellers - for November 2010

1 Greensward by Cole Swensen (Ugly Duckling Presse)
2 The Network by Jena Osman (Fence Books)
3 The Baghdad Blues by Sinan Antoon (Harbor Mountain Press)
4 A Cloud of Witnesses by Jason Stumpf (Quale Press)
5 Face by Sherman Alexie (Hanging Loose Press)
6 Lyric Postmodernisms: An Anthology of Contemporary Innovative Poetries by Reginald Shepherd, Editor (Counterpath Press)
7 Selenography by Joshua Marie Wilkinson (Sidebrow Books)
8 Rob the Plagiarist by Robert Fitterman (Roof Books)
9 Cop Kisser by Steven Zultanski (Book Thug)
10 The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry: Contemporary Poets in Discussion and Practice by Gary L. McDowell and F. Daniel Rzicznek, Editors (Rose Metal Press)
11 Scary, No Scary by Zachary Schomburg (Black Ocean)
12 Pleasure by Brian Teare (Ahsahta Press)
13 Chinese Notebook by Demosthenes Agrafiotis (Ugly Duckling Presse)
14 Public Domain by Monica de la Torre (Roof Books)
15 Sky Booths in the Breath Somewhere: The Ashbery Erasure Poems by David Dodd Lee (BlazeVOX Books)
16 Ten Walks/Two Talks by Jon Cotner and Andy Fitch (Ugly Duckling Presse)
17 Mommy Must Be a Fountain of Feathers by Kim Hyesoon (Action Books)
18 Pink Elephant by Rachel McKibbens (Cypher Books)
19 The Bark of the Dog by Merrill Gilfillan (Flood Editions)
20 engulf—enkindle by Anja Utler (Burning Deck)
21 Cargo by Kristin Kelly (Elixir Press)
22 Song for His Disappeared Love/Canto a Su Amor Desaparecido by Raúl Zurita (Action Books)
23 Bathsheba Transatlantic by Sarah Wetzel (Anhinga Press)
24 obedience by kari edwards (Factory School)
25 Hughson's Tavern by Fred Moten (Leon Works)
26 As It Turned Out by Dmitri Golynko (Ugly Duckling Presse)
27 This Time We Are Both by Clark Coolidge (Ugly Duckling Presse)
28 Ventrakl by Christian Hawkey (Ugly Duckling Presse)
29 We Are All Good if They Try Hard Enough by Mike Young (Publishing Genius Press)
30 Iteration Nets by Karla Kelsey (Ahsahta Press)

It's all at https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/12cbd27897dd30dd

Celebrate 10 years of poetry publishing in Western Australia!

For the first time, on Sunday 12th December from 10am-12 noon there will be a unique gathering of Sunline Press Poets reading together.
Since 2000, Sunline Press has been publishing celebrated and award-winning Australian poets in beautifully designed volumes.
Join us for this unique event to celebrate a decade of great writing at the serene Bodhi Tree Café – where food for the body meets food for the soul.
Confirmed readers so far are Kevin Gillam, Roland Leach, Shane McCauley, Vivienne Glance, Jennifer Kornberger, Annamaria Weldon, Denis McMahon and Andrew Burke. Copies of Sunline Press publications will be available for sale.

Location: 1a/416-418 Oxford Street, Mt Hawthorn WA 6016
Tel: (08) 9444 9884

For more information about The Bodhi Tree please see http://www.bodhitree.net.au/